From testosterone news to featherweight controversy to big questions for the UFC’s biggest fighters, there’s so much to get to in this edition of the Twitter Mailbag, I feel guilty wasting your time with the usual preamble.

When screening therapeutic-use-exemption applicants, most state athletic commissions ask if they’ve ever tested positive for any banned substances. Nevada includes that question as part of its criteria, but, according to NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer, answering yes does not necessarily disqualify an applicant. As Kizer told me via email this week, “The burden on the applicant would be even higher,” but that application could possibly still be approved.

This is where we get into a major problem with the whole testosterone-replacement therapy issue. Vitor Belfort is a great example. We know he’s tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in the past. We also know that abusing certain performance-enhancing drugs can damage a person’s endocrine system. So even if we accept Belfort’s claim that now, as a 35-year-old man, he does suffer from abnormally low testosterone levels, how do we know he didn’t do it to himself? And if he did do it to himself, why should we give him permission to inject testosterone now to erase the consequences of his own decisions? How is that fair to other fighters who have never used PEDs?

That’s a question that’s not being adequately addressed right now. When we’re talking about whether to allow professional fighters to inject themselves with steroids – and please, before you try to argue that synthetic testosterone isn’t a steroid, go look at the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of prohibited substances, right there under part B of “Anabolic Androgenic Steroids” – the cause has to matter. We all saw Belfort when he was in his early 20s. No way that was a guy who suffered from naturally occurring hypogonadism. It would take a damn miracle for a man with abnormally low testosterone to get that big and strong, not to mention compete at that level as a professional athlete. So if we accept that he didn’t have the condition then, but does have it now, what caused it? Age? His lifestyle? Past drug use? Years of weight-cutting and hard training and sustaining blows to the head? I don’t see why any of those potential causes should be reason enough to allow him to fight other men for a living while under the influence of synthetic testosterone.

Getting too old to compete clean? Retire. Taken too many hits to the head? Retire yesterday, and go see a doctor. Messed up your own hormone production with drug use? Either make do with what you got, or else retire and go give talks to high school athletes about why they shouldn’t do what you did. All of those seem like better options for our sport and its fighters than sanctioned performance-enhancing drug use.

@benfowlkesmma is this a situation where Bisping should do trt in order to beat all the other guys on it?

Thank you, Mike, for bringing up the other problem with TRT use in MMA. Just as Belfort is a great example of the issues with users, Michael Bisping is an example of the issues for non-users. If we look back at Bisping’s UFC career, we see three losses in three middleweight contender fights. The first was to Dan Henderson, the second was to Chael Sonnen, and the third was to Belfort. What do they all have in common? TRT, of course.

Say you’re Bisping right now. Say you’ve never used performance-enhancing drugs in your life, whether with permission or without. You’ve followed all the rules, competed clean your whole career, and yet you keep getting knocked back (and sometimes out) by opponents who have been granted permission to increase their levels of an androgenic steroid hormone. How are you supposed to feel right now? How are you not supposed to feel like you should get on this stuff too, even if you don’t want to? That’s one of the really pernicious aspects of performance-enhancing drug use (and if TRT wasn’t performance-enhancing, do you think guys like Belfort would be willing to take such a public thrashing in order to use it?) – it encourages non-users to become users, if only to level the playing field. It makes people who would rather compete clean feel like they can’t.

That’s just depressing. It’s also dangerous, both for the guy who’s getting his brain rattled by the TRT user, and for the guy who is getting on TRT and shutting down his natural hormone production just to keep up with the Belforts. These are all reasons not to allow this madness in our sport, and they are far more compelling than any of the reasons to let it continue.

@benfowlkesmma now that we have Pettis vs Aldo, is Lamas vs Korean Zombie pretty much a lock for #1 contender?

Seems like a great idea to me. Both Ricardo Lamas and Chan Sung Jung have looked impressive lately, but I don’t know that either has made an unshakeable case for a title shot yet. You throw them in the cage together and you get a) probably a really great fight, and b) a contender who can’t be ignored. The UFC’s featherweight division could use that right about now.

@benfowlkesmma Problems with the UFC HoF aside, if Frankie Edgar never wears another belt again is he a HoFer in your book? #tmb

That’s tough, because I’m not sure what defines a hall of famer in MMA. This is a sport that currently has no real hall of fame and thus no real criteria for who gets in. As my podcast co-host Chad Dundas likes to say, it depends on what kind of hall of fame we want to have. Do we want an elite club for only the all-time greats, or do we want to fling open the doors to every tough fighter and generally awesome dude who entertained us in the cage?

Edgar defeated B.J. Penn twice and Gray Maynard once. He successfully defended the UFC lightweight title twice over a period of about a year and a half. As it stands right now, those are his greatest accomplishments as a fighter. Is that a hall of fame resume? Maybe. It’s definitely really, really good. It just depends on whether we want to allow the really, really good into our purely hypothetical hall, or if it’s only for the greats.

@benfowlkesmma Would the UFC ever let a fighter hold two belts in two weight classes? #TMB

Look how much trouble it is to line up regular title defenses when there’s one champ (occasionally two) for every weight class. If, say, Anderson Silva had to defend belts in two divisions, it would really slow things down. If it ever came to that, my guess is the UFC would let the champ keep whichever title he wanted to stick around and defend, and offer the other up as a vacant belt to be fought over by the top contenders. If there was ever a situation that called for a grand prix-style tournament, that would be it.

@benfowlkesmma If Pride Never Die, and WEC Never Forget, what does Strikeforce Never Do?

Why not? Junior dos Santos seemed like he wanted to fight Alistair Overeem as much for personal as professional reasons back when he was the heavyweight champ. Now that JDS and “The Reem” are both coming off losses, it makes sense to match them up together and let them figure this thing out for themselves. The winner of that fight is immediately back in the title picture Plus who doesn’t love a good heavyweight grudge match? As for Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, the time has come to stop putting him in fights where the goal is to make the other guy look good. Give him a top contender, and then give the man a title shot if he wins. It’s just a shame the UFC hasn’t been able to come to terms with Josh Barnett – because he’d be perfect for this job.

@benfowlkesmma Are we so affixed on Reem that, with 1 big win (over Cigano?), all is forgotten/forgiven? Fans have short term memory… #tmb

Here’s the problem for Overeem right now: He failed a drug test, returned to action with a physique that looked noticeably less superhuman after nearly a year under the athletic commission microscope, and then lost. Immediately that makes people wonder if his success was a direct result of performance-enhancing drugs. Now if he shows up for a fight with dos Santos or anyone else looking like an action figure again, and he wins, what are we supposed to think? Weirdly, the best thing for his reputation right now might be to show up at his next weigh-in looking fat and soft and totally out of shape, then win anyway. That might actually prove something.

Overeem said he doesn’t care about changing anyone’s minds when it comes to PED suspicions, but that was before Silva knocked him out. I don’t know if he can afford that luxury now. He needs to prove that he can fight clean and win clean, because at the moment he’s going to be considered guilty until proven innocent by a lot of fans and media.

@benfowlkesmma say Anthony Pettis does the unthinkable and dethrones Jose Aldo, then who would challenge Henderson/Gil winner?

A win for Pettis over Aldo is far from unthinkable, if you ask me. With his size and power, I could definitely see him beating Aldo, assuming the weight cut doesn’t take too much out of him. If he does win, the move down to featherweight is a pretty savvy financial move for Pettis because it sets up a potential (real) superfight with the UFC lightweight champ. Especially if Benson Henderson retains his title against Gilbert Melendez, and I suspect he will, the Henderson-Pettis throwdown becomes a fight that sells itself, and one in which both fighters would make some serious coin.

@benfowlkesmma Do you think Greg Jackson will be punished by the UFC in some way for being on Fight Master?

How would the UFC punish a trainer who doesn’t work for the company in any capacity? It’s not like fighters are seeking him out because he comes so highly recommended by Dana White as it is. If I were a fighter in the Jackson-Winkeljohn camp right now, I’d be less concerned about repercussions from UFC management than with the possibility that this new reality TV role will spread Jackson too thin. He already trains half the fighters in MMA (not really, but it feels like it sometimes). He’s out of town seemingly every weekend offering his disturbingly calm advice in some fighter’s corner. This is one more thing to add to an already frantic schedule. I know his gym is far from the one-man operation we sometimes make it out to be, but even Jackson can only do so much for so many.

@benfowlkesmma What do u think of “everyone” hoping for Carmouche to lose to Rousey? Is women MMA that weak at this point?

Is everyone hoping for that? Or, as Amy Hempel might say, are you putting quotes around “everyone” the same way you would send traffic fines to the Hall of “Justice?” Liz Carmouche has a solid core of fans – the Lizbos, as she likes to call them – who are no doubt rooting for her to pull off the upset. And any time there’s a huge favorite in an MMA fight, there will always be people who pull for the underdog just because.

In addition to all that, a Carmouche victory would be a true test of the UFC’s commitment to women’s MMA. If Carmouche knocks some of the shine off Ronda Rousey, will the UFC still be into this idea? Will it be anywhere near as eager to promote a women’s title fight if there’s no beautiful blond media magnet involved? I have my doubts, but it would be interesting to find out.

No way, but that’s not a good reason to stop trying. Every sport is going to have cheaters. Even the Olympics, which does more on the drug testing front than virtually any major pro sport, will still have cheaters. The important thing is that we take every reasonable step to root them out and punish them, even if we acknowledge that it will always be a problem we have to deal with. Because what’s the alternative? Just giving up? Declaring the problem too difficult to solve? We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We owe it to the fighters who are competing clean to do our best to make sure that we’re not sending them into a fight with an unfair and dangerous disadvantage.

@benfowlkesmma#tmb question: How do you feel if a fighter takes exception to one of your articles or comments about them?Do you care?

I can’t say I don’t care, because hey, I don’t like making people unhappy. Who does? But my hope is that I don’t care enough to do anything differently with my writing because of it. That’s what I owe you, right? That’s why you take the time to read my columns and my Twitter Mailbags, because you believe that I’m going to give you an honest take rather than one designed not to piss anybody off. I mean, I’m not sitting here trying to piss off people. I’m trying to write about this sport in a way that’s honest and fair and entertaining and maybe even occasionally insightful, when I’m lucky. I can’t do that if I’m worried that the person I’m writing about is going to get mad.

Like The Hold Steady said, you can’t tell people what they want to hear if you also want to tell the truth. And if I’m telling the truth, giving my honest and unvarnished view on this weird world and everyone in it, sometimes other people won’t like it. But if I’m not doing that, why should you waste your time reading it?

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie.com and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Follow him on Twitter at @BenFowlkesMMA. Twitter Mailbag appears every Thursday on MMAjunkie.com.

As the UFC 189 tour made its last stop in Dublin, featherweight champ Jose Aldo was met with a torrent of abuse from the Irish fans. It might have been unpleasant, but it might also have been just what he needed.